An open letter to the Roane County sheriff:
I read recently that the Houstons have been levied with a multi-million dollar penalty. I don’t presume to know their next step, but having served in law enforcement, I can quickly surmise what is coming next for the sheriff’s office.

I would like to suggest an alternative option to training and amassing equipment for a tactical operation to remove them from their property should they not appeal or find another recourse.

By GENE POLICINSKI
First Amendment Center
Monuments to freedom and liberty generally come as things — marble statues, carved granite slabs — that are meant to last for the ages.

But on June 12, let’s pause to remember a monument noteworthy because it no longer exists: the Berlin Wall. As we do, let’s also recall and celebrate the monumental words spoken 25 years ago that helped spur its destruction.

Kent Flanagan, director of the Tennessee Coalition of Open Government, reminded TCOG followers on Twitter recently that the Tennessee General Assembly has added more than 350 exemptions to the state’s open records law over the years.

Those exemptions are scattered throughout Tennessee Code Annotated, not codified in any one place in the Tennessee Public Records Act.